Religious Zionism: What’S Next?

jewish_41_58.qxd 3/9/06 10:12 PM Page 44 ISRAEL Religious Zionism: What’s Next? According to some, the only feasible way to guarantee that the State retains its Jewish majority is total disengagement from areas of the country where large Arab populations are concen- trated. Photo: www.sassontiram.com 44 JEWISH ACTION Spring 5766/2006 jewish_41_58.qxd 3/9/06 10:13 PM Page 45 disengagement was a watershed event The that seared the psyche of many thousands of Jews, though the effect on young Religious Zionists was most pronounced. The crucial issue concerns the long-term effects of the disengagement. We have posed several questions to six individuals, each of whom is a keen observer of the Israeli scene. They represent widely divergent views and should help us gain a better understanding of the disengagement’s background and meaning. What prompted the disengagement—security considerations, improving 1prospects for peace, diverting attention from possible corruption charges or the desire to break up Religious Zionist communal life and undermine the Religious Zionist spirit? What will be the short- and long-term effects of the disengagement on 2 Religious Zionism’s attitude toward the State? Toward the army? Has the long-standing alliance between secular and religious Jewry in Israel 3been irreparably damaged as a result of the disengagement? Were ordinary Chareidi Jews more sympathetic to the plight of the uproot- 4ed than were their political leaders? If so, what effect will that have on the relationship between Chareidi and Religious Zionist Jews? How do you explain the failure of so many Religious Zionists to follow 5 the views of their religious leaders such as Rabbi Avraham Shapira and Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu? Can the current split within the Religious Zionist movement be bridged? 6 Can those who will “not forgive and not forget” be reconciled with those who seem ready to adapt to the disengagement? Can the bitterness and trau- ma engendered by the disengagement ever be overcome? Spring 5766/2006 JEWISH ACTION 45 jewish_41_58.qxd 3/9/06 10:13 PM Page 46 PETER AND AVI ABELOW achel Saperstein, a resident of the shuls of 10,000 Jews have been tions for their efforts to try to rebuild RJerusalem Gold Hotel (as of this destroyed, and the victims have been their lives and communities. Irrespective writing), is a friend of ours who lived in cast out, for the most part, to fend for of whether or not one agrees with the Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip for themselves. Even those who adhered to disengagement, or whether or not a par- over twenty-five years before being the government’s timetable and ticular family left willingly or had to be expelled from her home. Some months demands have not fared much better carried out, we are obligated to assist ago, she went on a fund-raising trip to than those who did not. Should this not these Jews in their time of need. the United States on behalf of the be the concern of every Jew everywhere? But the real issue that should con- 10,000 refugees from Gush Katif and One of the most tragic stories is cern American Orthodoxy is the ongo- Northern Shomron. Her biggest disap- that of the late Chezi Hazani, coinci- ing struggle to define the nature of the pointment was that many shuls refused dentally of the destroyed community of Jewish State. Shimon Peres has often to give her a forum because they did Netzer Hazani. Chezi died suddenly of asked if Israel is a Jewish or an Israeli not want to take a stand on a political a heart attack one month after he and state. When Peres was defeated by issue. his family were expelled from their Binyamin Netanyahu in the 1996 elec- What a sad commentary on the home. But there was no place to bury tions, he was quoted as saying that “the state of the Orthodox community in Chezi because he no longer had an offi- Jews won and the Israelis lost.” Peres America when the obligation to assist cial residence. Finally, after the body lay was Ariel Sharon’s chief political partner fellow Jews who are homeless, jobless in an ambulance on the road for four at the time of the disengagement. and in desperate need of support, both hours, the city of Rishon Letzion per- Although we cannot see into the minds financial and emotional, is twisted into mitted Chezi to be buried in its ceme- of the architects of the disengagement, an issue of politics. Their situation is as tery, near the graves of his own parents. many Israelis believe that the evidence serious as that of the thousands of vic- But he was not entitled to the free bur- clearly points to an agenda to break up tims of Hurricane Katrina. Yet the ial services granted to the residents of Religious Zionist communal life and response to their needs has been very the city. His family had to pay an exor- undermine the movement’s idealistic different. bitant 30,000 NIS (around $6,000) spirit. This point is particularly critical This human disaster was not the “non-resident” fee before the city’s to understand in light of the Road Map, result of a sudden, unanticipated act of chevrah kadishah (burial society) would which envisions the uprooting of many nature but the consequence of a meticu- proceed with the burial. more religious, idealistic Torah-based lously planned move by the Israeli gov- As of this writing, four months communities, this time in the undisput- ernment. In anticipation of the expul- after the expulsion, more than half of ed heart of Biblical Israel, throughout sion, police were thoroughly prepared— the expellees are still living in hotels. Yehudah and Shomron. Therefore, the they were given detailed information Others are living in small, leaky cara- question we must ask is this: Are we a about the Jews to be expelled including vans, a fraction of the size of the homes nation that is guided by the principles the number of people in each home, the in which they once lived. According to a of Jewish tradition and Jewish law, or a ages of the children, the professions of recent article in The Jerusalem Post, 78 country, like every other country, run the adults and their psychological pro- percent of the expellees are unemployed. for and by people who happen to be files. But there seemed to have been far Many have no access to their posses- Jewish? less concern and certainly far less plan- sions, which are locked away in storage The struggle over the identity of ning for what would happen to the peo- containers. These are real people with the Jewish State is nowhere more evi- ple the next day. The homes, liveli- real needs. They and their children have dent than in the political realm. The hoods, schools, community centers and been scarred by the traumatic events of Shinui Party, whose platform called for August 2005. The current plight of the Israel to be run as a secular state, was Peter Abelow writes a regular column for Jewish Action. His son Avi, an organizational refugees is a humanitarian, not a politi- the third largest vote getter in the last psychologist, was a volunteer in Gush Katif at cal, issue. Instead of being helped, peo- elections. After the election, Orthodox the time of the disengagement and was ple who built communities in which politicians were outraged, accusing party expelled with the residents of Netzer Hazani. Torah study and observance flourished leader Tommy Lapid of virtually declar- They both live in Efrat. are harassed by the government institu- ing war on Judaism. Nevertheless, 46 JEWISH ACTION Spring 5766/2006 jewish_41_58.qxd 3/9/06 10:13 PM Page 47 Sharon had no problem making Shinui Mazuz made it clear to state prosecutors The report clearly points out that a key member of his coalition. In the in public remarks that they were to treat the phrase “ideological crime” United States, a party with a Shinui non-violent protesters as if they were (“avaryanut ideologit”) pops up again agenda would most likely be labeled involved in a rebellion against State and again in court decisions regarding anti-Semitic and would probably never authorities with the purpose of destroy- opponents of the disengagement. make it onto a ballot. The Anti- ing the State and its institutions. Not The picture that emerges from the Defamation League and the American only were the protestors’ democratic report is that the government allowed its Civil Liberties Union would see to that. rights to non-violently demonstrate judicial arm to pass judgment against Moreover, every Orthodox Union con- taken away from them, but the protest- protestors based on their ideology and gregation would be up in arms. In ers were classified as rebels out to beliefs and not based on human rights Israel, a platform that espouses disdain destroy the State of Israel. A very harsh and rule of law. for observant Jews and Jewish practice is judicial precedent indeed against the Gary Rosenblatt, editor of New given full credibility while right-wing (mostly) teenagers of the religious/settler York’s Jewish Week, wrote: religious parties that dare to dream of a establishment. Reading the report on the govern- Jewish state within what they under- The report states: ment’s alleged violation of the disengage- stand to be the Divine mandates as By choosing to reclassify nonviolent ment opponents’ civil rights is a sad and expressed in the Torah, are ostracized, offenses such as blocking roads and passive- painful exercise for anyone who values marginalized and even banned.

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